Christoph Heeman -- Soft Black Stars -- David Tibet Live Review -- NYC -- 6 March, 1999

Christoph Heeman
Soft Black Stars
David Tibet
of
Current 93

The Tonic, Norfolk St.
New York City
March 6th, 1999

Reviewed by
Kyle Godbey

Intro

Well, for stupid reasons, it was quite the production to get to this show.
After finding it, my friend Cody and I walked into "No Smoking" signs
in a NYC [New York City] club. I still don't know what to think about that,
but supposidly David Tibet is highly allergic or something to that matter.
The absolute first thing I noticed was this gorgeous little ticket.
It was some sort of transparent waxy plastic paper
with a picture of crumpled dolls in a pile.
Good thing they gave them back to us after the show.

I had never been to and really wouldn't look forward to going back.
It's about the same shape as Coney Island High
(for those that have been there),
except it's not as long and has higher ceilings.
It's smaller then CBGBs as well.
One hundred fifty people nearly filled this place,
it was hot and uncomfortable, and it was
extremely difficult to see what was going on.
I don't know if they were on a two inch stage or just playing on the floor,
but I had to jump [up] every time I wanted to see what was happening.

Try and try as I might, I just can't stomach David Tibet's voice.
Soft Black Stars was Micheal Cashmore on guitars
and David Tibet on vocals,
I can't say I was over joyed.
In fact Cody and I spent most of the time smoking during this set.
After the first ten minutes,
it was the same thing over and over again.
Three guitar chords though lots of reverb and chorus,
and David quivering and whining about wild astral stuff.
I believe he played Fields of Rape, which I really did enjoy,
and the first song (something about the devil creating the earth in six
days and god chasing the stars away) I enjoyed as well.
All I needed was a couch.
If I could sit down and pave my lungs while hearing
them spout I would have loved it, but I was very edgy and David's [voice]
wasn't helping. The technical difficulties they were having with Michael's
stomp boxes only made the show drudge on that much longer.

Then Christoph came on.
It took about a half a second for me to fall back against
the wall and slide to the floor and begin conjuring up little dreams.
I sat there not paying attention to anything during Christoph's set.
For a little less then an hour he laid out some of
the most beautiful textures and drones I've ever heard.
In my trance I only remember everything as being a dull gold color.
Music lays colors on me when I trance, rarely is gold one of them.
For a little less then an hour Cody and I sat in the back in catatonic bliss. 
        It turns out Christoph had a few CD players and an 8 track mixer
that he was using to manipulate a number of CDR's.
When he finished and everyone applauded,
he kind of nodded and smiled, almost like he was embarrassed.
He just wanted to drill out a barrage of sexy sounds,
he didn't want the crowd to fall in love with him like they did.
I envy that.
Sorry if you missed this.